Friday, February 27, 2009

When the economy makes big news, many photographs of people at work come across the wires, usually to help illustrate a particular story or event.

By collecting these disparate photos over the past few months, I found that a global portrait emerged of we humans producing things. People assembling, generating, and building items small and large, mundane and expensive, trivial and important.

I hope you enjoy this look into some people's work lives around the world.------------

Thursday, February 26, 2009

I hate dirty screens. Since I began using computers, a significant part of my life has involved trying to find ways of keeping the path between my retina and the image I am surveying as pure as possible.

A few years ago, I came across a product called OptiMax. I can't remember how, although I seem to remember it was via a Sigma SD9 user forum. What I do know is that I ordered a shipment of them from Robert Petersen at their website.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Our benchmarks confirm Apple's Safari 4 browser, released in beta, is the fastest browser on the planet. In fact, it beat Google's Chrome, Firefox 3, Opera 9.6 and even Mozilla's developmental Minefield browser.

Visit cnet for the actual figures if you want to see how all seven browsers scored against each other, but for quick reference Safari was a whopping 42 times faster than Internet Explorer 7, just over six times faster than Internet Explorer 8, 3.5 times faster than Firefox 3, and 1.2 times faster than Google Chrome.------------

The Australian has published an excellent article on British high-functioning autistic savant Daniel Tammet. Excerpts follow:

Daniel Tammet turns 30 today and is quite pleased because he likes that number. Not the age, the number. "Thirty is round but also kind of curvy and shiny and green because three is green so that gives it its colour," he explains in a calm, gentle monotone".

To [Daniel] each number has its own shape, colour and even mood. "I like 30 because it is smack bang in the middle between prime numbers 29 and 31. Prime numbers are fairly rare anyway and numbers that are separated by two are even rarer."

Tammet has Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of autism, and is one of the world's most remarkable savants, or people with developmental disorders and extraordinary mental abilities related to those disorders.

Tammet is one the 25 to 50 people in the world who are considered prodigious savants, meaning their abilities would be exceptional even if they did not have a disorder. The best-known representation of one is Dustin Hoffman's character in the film Rain Man, who struggled to function independently but could perform amazing mathematical stunts.

Tammet's ability to see each number up to 10,000 as a different shape and pattern helps him to do complex calculations in an instant. If he wants to multiply two numbers their images combine in his mind to produce a new shape, which he instantly recognises as the number he is after. He has a similar facility with words and languages: he learned Icelandic in a week and speaks 11 other languages, including one he invented.

But at the same time he struggles to recognise or express his emotions, has the facial recognition skills of a five to eight-year-old, and has trouble telling his left from his right. He cannot drive a car and has had to train himself to make eye contact, have small talk or recognise jokes.

Tammet argues that savant abilities should be seen as an outgrowth of normal brain functioning and "natural, instinctive ways of thinking about numbers and words", which suggests that affected brains might be at least partially retrained and that normal brains might be taught to develop or retain some savant abilities.

"In other people blue is connected with sadness for example, but when you think about it sadness is an abstract concept so why is it blue, why not green or yellow? It makes no more logical sense for sadness to be blue than for four to be blue. So there are certain connections, certain concepts in everyone's brain that are connected that way and mine just takes it to a whole other level."------------

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Available for PC & Mac, my first impressions are that it is very fast (especially with Java stuff), and that the 'top sites' and 'cover flow' features are a lot of fun. And from a skim-read of its specifications, this looks like Apple's attempt to start challenging Firefox's position as 'web browser of choice' for the discerning PC user.

The Philips TV is the first to offer a 21:9 aspect ratio. You’ll get a 52in viewing area and Philips’ Ambilight system that projects light onto the wall behind the telly coloured to complement the image on the screen.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Pre-PMA 2009: Ricoh has launched the CX1, a CMOS-based zoom compact camera. The CX1 puts a 9 megapixel CMOS sensor in a R10-like body offering a 28-200mm equivalent zoom range but increasing the screen resolution to 920,000 dots (unusually good for a compact camera).

The new sensor allows high-speed continuous shooting (up to 120 frames per second at 640x480 pixel resolution), and has a series of additional technologies to boost dynamic range. The first is a multiple exposure mode that effectively produces in-camera HDR images, the second is a system that uses red and blue data to calculate a green value when the green channel overexposes.------------

Thursday, February 19, 2009

True Blood is a television adaption of the Sookie Stackhouse book series (also known as The Southern Vampire Mysteries) by Charlaine Harris.

Alan Ball (Six Feet Under) has created a dark, yet humourous take on one of postmodernity's most popular myths, the vampire.

Thanks to the invention of synthetic blood (Japanese, natch) vampires are demanding civil rights. Predictably, everyone is taking sides, and the show uses this to explore a wide range of subjects, including racism, civil rights and homophobia, all through the lens of a claustrophibic deep south town called Bon Temps.

It's an imperfect and messy show. If you are put off by blood, you'll hate it. And it is ruder than a rude thing from rude-world. But the characters are complex and likeable enough for me to be looking forward to the next series.------------

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The Daily Mail has published an informative and fascinating report on one of the Royal Navy's Trident-equipped nuclear submarines. What follows is an extremely condensed version:

Deep beneath the surface of the Atlantic, HMS Vanguard — one of four identical Royal Navy submarines carrying Trident nuclear missiles — is on patrol.

Moving at a fast-walking pace, she is out there right now; undetectable, untouchable and armed with more explosive power than was unleashed by all sides in the duration of World War II.

On board the Vanguard there is a safe attached to the floor of the control room. Inside that, there is an inner safe. And inside that sits a letter. It is addressed to the submarine commander and it is from the Prime Minister.

In that letter, Gordon Brown conveys the most awesome decision of his political career. He made it alone, in the first days of his premiership, and none of us is ever likely to know what he decided.

It is the Prime Minister’s answer to a grim but essential question: in the event of a nuclear attack in which Britain is largely destroyed and he is killed before he has time to react, should Britain fire back?

Vanguard was the first of Britain’s four nuclear-armed submarines to slide silently into the Faslane naval base on the east coast of Scotland when the Trident programme came into commission 14 years ago.

We can’t say where she is right now, because we don’t know. Even the Navy does not know precisely. Nor do most of her 160 or so crew. Once the boat has left base, it is up to the captain alone to decide where to patrol within the vast sector of the ocean to which he has been assigned.

Nothing prepares you for your first encounter with a ballistic submarine. It’s not so much her size — though she’s big, 150metres long — which takes your breath away. It’s the overwhelming menace which drips from her glistening grey casement. She is the most violent thing man has ever created. Yet she’s beautiful, too; a piece of perfect engineering.

Commander Lindsey... knows what his job is: to be Britain’s very last line of defence. And he has no doubt what he would do if he had to go into those safes to retrieve the Prime Minister’s letter.

‘In those circumstances we just go straight into our standard training profile: we will have had access through the outer safe, and I would then go into the inner safe open the letter and carry out those instruction as per that letter.’

Friday, February 13, 2009

Argos are selling the snappily named Toshiba 42inch 42XV553DB 1080P Digital LCD TV for a penny under £500. Please don't ask me how much I paid for my 50" Fujitsu plasma just a few years ago. Come to think of it, I don't think I got much change out of £500 for the stand!------------

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Facebook is planning to exploit the vast amount of personal information it holds on its 150m members by creating one of the world's largest market research databases.In an attempt to finally monetise the social networking site, once valued at $15bn (£10.4bn), it will soon allow multinational companies to selectively target its members in order to research the appeal of new products.

Companies will be able to pose questions to specially selected members based on such intimate details as whether they are single or married and even whether they are gay or straight.

The power of Facebook, and its members, in driving corporate decisions was illustrated last year, when a campaign on the site led to Cadbury reversing its decision to withdraw the popular Wispa chocolate bar. Cadbury has sold 70m Wispas since it reintroduced the bar in October after the Facebook campaign attracted 40,000 signatories.

Facebook has already sold the new polling system, called engagement ads, to CareerBuilder, a global graduate recruitment company, and AT&T, the US telecoms giant, is trialling the system. A Facebook spokesman said the company's advertising department is marketing the new service to thousands of companies worldwide and it hopes the polls will go live this spring.------------

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Earl Brooks (Kevin Costner) is a successful businessman, devoted husband and father. He is also the 'Fingerprint Killer' named because he leaves behind the bloodstained fingerprints of his victims.

Mr Brooks is a complex being. At the beginning of the movie, he has restrained himself from killing anyone for over two years, attending AA meetings and focusing on his love for his wife and daughter. But, he is buckling again, aided and abetted by the brilliantly creepy Marshall (William Hurt), the 'devil on Brooks' shoulder'.

Monday, February 09, 2009

Hot from the 'Checked On Google To Make Sure It Wasn't A Hoax, And I'm Still Not Convinced' (COGTMSIWAHAISNC™) section, Overstock.com are offering the 'Hug Me Pillow', which is (allegedly) 'The perfect snuggling companion', providing 'comfort as well as piece [sic] of mind'.------------

David McNerney has released this freeware screen saver. It arranges any selected folder of images to form 3D constructions, such as a city block with buildings. Requires Mac OS X 10.5 and a decent graphics card. Very fun.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Fujifilm has unveiled the FinePix F200EXR digital compact, incorporating its new 1/1.6” Super CCD EXR sensor. The camera is the first to use the company's EXR technology that can use the sensor in three different ways to optimize resolution, dynamic range or low-light performance.

The F200EXR has a 3.0" LCD, 5x optical zoom, dual image stabilization and HD (stills) output. An EXR Auto mode lets the camera select which of the three sensor modes is used.------------

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Based around the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, the film chronicles how Charlie Wilson, a playboy Texan politican, gets involved in covertly increasing the CIA's anti-communism budget from $5 million to over $1 billion.

Philip Seymour Hoffman is the star of the film, playing a savvy, non-pc CIA agent. Tom Hanks is also superb in his role of Charlie Wilson. And the synergy between the two of them is a joy to watch. Some of the best (and funniest) moments in the film are the verbal exchanges between Phil and Tom.

The screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (West Wing) has done a brilliant job of condensing George Crile's 2003 tome into 90 minutes of entertaining and thought-provoking cinema.------------

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

From Henry Selick (director of 'The Nightmare Before Christmas') and based on Neil Gaiman’s best-selling book, comes a stop-motion animated adventure (the first to be originally filmed in 3D).

Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning) is bored in her new home until she finds a secret door and discovers an alternate version of her life on the other side. This parallel reality is similar to her real life and the people in it - only much better.

But when this seemingly perfect world turns dangerous, and her other parents (including her 'Other Mother' voiced by Teri Hatcher) try to trap her forever.

Coraline must count on her resourcefulness, determination and bravery to escape this increasingly perilous world - and save her family.------------

Monday, February 02, 2009

Yakutsk is a remote city in Eastern Siberia (population 200,000) famous for two things: appearing in the classic board game Risk, and the fact that it can convincingly claim to be the coldest city on earth.

Yakutia, the region of which it is the capital, covers more than a million square miles, but it is home to fewer than one million people.

At -20˚C, the moisture in your nostrils freezes, and the cold air starts making it difficult not to cough. At -35˚C, the air will quickly numb exposed skin, making frostbite a constant hazard. And at -45˚C wearing glasses gets tricky, any metal sticks to your cheeks and will tear off chunks of flesh when you decide to remove them.

Locals claim that there are enough lakes and rivers in the region for each inhabitant to have one of each. They are fond of boasting that the region contains every element in the periodic table. According to local legend, the god of creation had been flying around the world to distribute riches and natural resources, but when he got to Yakutia he got so cold that his hands went numb and he dropped everything.

Yakutsk's remoteness is also extraordinary. It is six time zones away from Moscow, and two centuries ago it would have taken more than three months to travel between the two. Now it takes six hours in a Tupolev aeroplane.

Until the Russian Revolution of 1917, Yakutsk remained an insignificant provincial outpost. In the 19th century it was used, like many Siberian towns, as an open prison for political dissidents.

The region is rich in gold and diamonds, which is what lay behind the Soviets' decision to turn Yakutsk into a major regional centre, first using the Gulag labour system, and later with the resettlement of thousands of volunteers seeking adventure, higher salaries and the chance to build socialism on ice. The corporate giant Alrosa, which owns Russia's diamond monopoly, is based in the region and accounts for 20 per cent of the world's supply of rough diamonds.

Workers continue working on building sites up to -50˚C (below this the metal becomes too brittle to work with), and children go to school unless it's below -55˚C (although the kindergarten gets the day off if it hits -50˚C).

The whole region suffers harsh winters. A few hundred miles down the 'Road of Bones' is Oimyakon, known as 'The Pole of Cold'. It was here that the lowest ever temperature in an inhabited place was recorded, -71.2˚C.------------